


Better Late Than Never

by Gizzix



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Bonding, Botfights, Brothers, Gen, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-24
Updated: 2014-11-24
Packaged: 2018-02-26 20:45:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2665775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gizzix/pseuds/Gizzix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are a few things no one knows about Tadashi Hamada.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Better Late Than Never

**Author's Note:**

> For a prompt fill over on Tumblr- Tadashi came in late to rescue his brother in one of his bot fights. I hope you like it!

“-and _next_ time maybe you’ll actually _listen_ to me when I tell you not to go to the _most dangerous parts of town at night-“_

There are some things that everyone just _knows_ about Tadashi Hamada. Simple fact, solid truth.

On his tenth birthday his parents took him to a San Fransokyo Ninjas game, and he’s rarely seen without the hat they bought him on the occasion.

“-maybe- just maybe! You might actually learn this time, instead of running off again and finding yourself in even _more_ trouble-“

He doesn’t like button down shirts, and he has a weakness for the pork buns at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant a few blocks from his aunt’s café. And he is incredibly protective of his stupidly genius, careless, _boneheaded_ younger brother.

“-so if I’m not there you’ll actually learn to- Hiro?”

But there are some things- just a few, that most people don’t know.

“-going to be fine- yes I know it hurts you idiot that why I told you not to go there-“ 

He rambles, when he’s frightened. It doesn’t happen often, not with a head as level as his own. It takes an extreme rush of adrenaline and a warning shot of terror to trigger it. It takes something like pulling a late night in the labs and making a coffee run for the group, and only realizing halfway through the trip that he’d left his phone in his pile of tools on a workshop desk. 

It takes coming back to loud, warning beeps from the device, because one of the trackers he put in his brother’s hoodie has entered a shady part of town. It takes realizing that the beeping had started _twenty minutes ago_ , and his brother’s hoodie –one hundred percent likely to have his brother in it- is currently half an hour away from campus, and no matter how fast he closes down his lab and rushes apologies as he skids out the door, he knows he won’t be fast enough.

“… no, not stitches. But you’re going to have a hell of a time explaining that shiner to Aunt Cass.”

He rambles, and very few people have ever seen it. 

“-you ever see them again, you _turn around_ , you got me? I don’t care what you think you’re doing, I don’t care where you are, if I’m not there you-“

What’s even rarer to see, is the hailstorm that is Tadashi Hamada’s temper. It’s near impossible to trigger, but three men had managed, tonight.

Three men. Three. Full grown adults who had his _brother_ in a corner after being hustled by the little genius, two taking turns shoving him back and cutting off his escape while the third dealt taunts and blows. The crowds had already dispersed for the night- there were no witnesses. It worked well in the older Hamada’s favor, when his scooter came to a screeching halt and he’d stepped off with cold fury in his eyes, and a torque wrench in his grip. 

Long hours now spent in the lab meant his karate was rusty, but his senses were honed by adrenaline and fear, and he could smell the sake on their breath. It had been easy, too easy, to drop the flanking bullies, and break the nose of the man in the middle. 

It was easy to be violent, once he was angered. It was _so much harder_ to put the wrench away, tuck it into his belt and step over the prone forms of the men, to the huddled body of Hiro, and not do any more damage to them than he already had when he saw his brother’s state. 

“-just learn to _listen_ to me, do you know how… I was _so_ scared.” 

He stops on the sidewalk, underneath the flickering orange glow of a streetlamp, to look down at one of the last remaining members of his tiny family. It would have been too difficult to carry Hiro home on his scooter, and he hopes it’ll still be where he left it tomorrow, stashed behind a dumpster and half buried in trash bags. 

Hiro’s a mess, but it could have been worse. So much worse. His brother’s sweater is ripped, and there’s blood soaking through the knee of his cargo pants- probably from being shoved to the ground at some point. He’s got an arm wrapped tight around his middle while the other holds his battle bot in a deathgrip, controller nowhere to be seen. 

Tadashi hadn’t even registered these little facts when he’d first laid trembling hands on Hiro’s form, too panicked over the mess of blood on his face while his mind reeled to calm down, calm down, he could handle this just calm down. His cardigan was sacrificed to gingerly mop up the mess, and once he’d realized that it was from a bloody nose and no, no head injures and Hiro was still conscious, he’d dared to lift the stupid, genius, _idiot_ boy into his arms.

He hasn’t put him down since- kept him in his grip while stashing his scooter, carried him the twenty seven blocks back home, and there’s still three to go but his feet have forgotten how to move for a moment, underneath the hazy bubble of light on the San Fransokyo street. 

Hiro will be fine. He’s _lucky as hell_ and Tadashi is going to rip him a new one once he’s back on his feet, but he’ll be alright. That knowledge doesn’t help the heavy dread that’s settled in his stomach, the cloying nausea in his throat and the voice in the back of his head that whispers, ‘What about next time?’

“I can’t… I can’t lose you, too.”

It takes him several moments to realize that Hiro’s mumbled words have turned from apologies to stammered shock, and the wetness on his younger brother’s face and the blurriness of his own vision have a correlating factor. He pulls the skinny body closer to his chest, and heads for home.

There are some things people don’t know about Tadashi Hamada. But the one thing _everyone_ knows, is that he would do anything for his brother.


End file.
